ZEROING IN ON TEENS' PROBLEMS PARENTS WILL GAIN TIPS ON DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE

The use of drugs and alcohol among adolescents, as well as other problems common to that age group, will be discussed next week in a two-hour program sponsored by West Lake Hospital.

The program, called "The Problems of Adolescence," is geared to parents of teen-age children who want to learn how to identify problems and when to seek professional help, said Chuck Dahl, coordinator of children and adolescent programs at the psychiatric hospital.

The hospital is located at 589 State Road 434, beside South Seminole Community Hospital. Both hospitals are owned and operated by Hospital Corporation of America.

According to national statistics, one out of every 16 high school seniors in the country report drinking daily and 28 percent of them get drunk weekly. A 1978 study by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism showed that the age in which children first begin to drink is dropping, from 13.4 years of age in 1966 to 12.6 in 1978. The study also showed that the number of adolescent girls who drink alcohol has tripled in the past 15 years. In another study, done in 1982 on the use of drugs by American children, 26.7 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 17 reported having smoked marijuana at least once in the preceding year. More than 6 percent said they had used cocaine and about 5 percent said they had taken hallucinogenic drugs.

At the Longwood hospital, one-third of the patients younger than 18 are being treated for drug abuse, Dahl said. He said the most common problems faced by his patients are drug or alcohol abuse or severe depression.

Dalh said he designed the free course, to be held Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon, to deal with those problems most often expressed by hospital patients. Sexuality, drug and alcohol abuse, peer pressure and identity crisis will be among the many topics discussed. The program will consist of a lecture and a question and answer period.